Where the Heart is 2: Where the Heart is, #2

By Cristina Grenier

A Sexy BWWM Interracial Pregnancy Romance

It’s been over six months since the birth of their daughter, and Jamie and Simon are finding that while raising a child is almost exactly as stressful as they’d been expecting, communication isn't their strong point, which just makes things harder. Despite his promises to find another job in another hospital so they could move, Simon is still working long hours in the same place, leaving Jamie to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to raising their daughter. As if that weren't hard enough, their relationship has become somewhat long distance, and Jamie spends time driving back and forth between the house in their hometown and Simon’s apartment in the city with their screaming baby girl in tow after spending time with her sick mother every week. 

They both find themselves tired and irritable, more often than not, and their lack of communication just makes misunderstandings and fights happen more often than either of them have the time or energy to deal with properly. When Jamie finds out that none of Simon's friends know anything about her or their baby despite how long it’s been, she has to ask herself once again if trying to make something work with Simon is the right thing to do or if she’d be better off following in her mother’s footsteps and going it alone. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Monster Media LLC
• Release date: May 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507012987

Book preview

Where the Heart is 2

By: Cristina Grenier

Where the Heart is 2

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This book can be read after Where the Heart is or as a standalone title.  If you haven’t got a chance to read Where the Heart is, you can get it by clicking the cover below.

CHAPTER 1: AND THIS IS HOW IT STARTS

Even the most restful sleep could be suddenly interrupted by a piercing wail from a crying child. This was a phenomenon that Jamie Parks was well aware of. The last six and a half months of her life had been similar to this moment. Sleeping deeply, or even sleeping lightly, just grateful to be able to snatch a few minutes of rest here and there where she could, only to have the silence shattered by her daughter’s persistent crying.

Jamie couldn’t remember being this age, but she was pretty sure that she hadn’t cried this much when she was. If she had, she owed her mother an apology.

For the third time that night, Jamie pushed back the covers on her bed and stumbled out of the room, moving down the hall in the darkness and flipping on the light switch only when she reached the room next door that had been turned into the baby’s room.

And there she was, Jamie’s little squalling bundle of joy. Emma Parks-Blake, who was such a pretty baby with her mother’s warm brown skin color and dark curls, but her father’s bright hazel eyes, had a massive set of lungs on her. She cried for any little thing from being too hot or too cold to just wanting one of her parents to pick her up and hold her. It was usually Jamie because despite Simon’s promises that he was going to be able to take more time off work to help with the whole child rearing thing, he spent most of his time working, and Jamie spent most of her time soothing the baby to sleep.

Now she lifted the crying child into her arms and shushed her, smoothing a hand down her back and rocking her against her body gently.

It’s okay, Em. I promise. Just go back to sleep. Go back to sleep for Mommy.

She had a routine by now, one that involved starting in Emma’s room, rocking her and talking to her softly. Sometimes that was enough to get her to drift back to sleep, attention and cuddling from her mother over with.

More often than not, though, Jamie ended up walking the halls of the house, singing softly under her breath while she checked to make sure that Emma didn’t need a change or feeding. They walked along the upstairs and then headed down, making a circuit of the living room and kitchen before going back up.

Usually by the time they’d reached Emma’s room again, the baby had cried herself back to sleep, and Jaime could catch another couple of hours of rest before she had to do it all over again.

She told herself that she didn’t resent Simon, probably passed out in his bed back in the city. Their arrangement worked as best it could, really.

Jamie still had to come back to the small town they had both been born and raised in to look after her mother and let people coo over her daughter, and Simon had lives to save or whatever it was that he did as a doctor in training.

They always managed to get a few days in the same place, either with Jamie traveling with Emma now that she was old enough to go places or Simon coming down to spend the weekend in the house with his little family.

It wasn’t perfect, but Jamie found that she was fiercely protective of the little arrangement, making sure that it worked no matter what else was going on. She wanted her daughter to have more family than she’d ever had, even if that meant that Jamie was often exhausted from transporting a six month old baby back and forth every week.

Considering how this had all started, Jamie thought they were doing very well.

Jamie and Simon Blake had been best friends since practically the moment they’d met all those years ago in elementary school. They’d been joined at the hip, spending recesses and lunches and weekends with each other, never seeming to get enough of each other’s company.

Their parents had been mostly amused by this, but they’d supported the friendship and eventually had grown to be friends as well. In their small town, everyone pretty much knew each other, so they literally had grown up together.

Eventually, their friendship morphed into something more, and while both of them claimed that relationships were messy and they didn’t have time for one, what had started out as just the two of them sleeping together moved into something stronger, whether either of them knew it or not.

Of course, even though they were so close, the two of them had different dreams. Simon had wanted to be a doctor basically from the moment they’d met a real one at career day in the fourth grade. All he talked about was helping people and how he wanted to make them better, and Jamie and his parents had been enthusiastic in their support.

Jamie wanted to be a writer. Book reports and essays and stories had always been her specialty, and she’d dreamed fondly of writing her own books or working for a magazine or newspaper.

She’d learned the hard way, though, that sometimes things had to be put on hold when her mother was diagnosed with cancer before she was even done with high school. It had been rough for the young woman, trying to finish school and think about college and everything with her mother often being too sick to leave her bed.

Simon and his family had helped as much as they could, but Simon still wanted to follow his dream of getting out of their tiny town and moving to the city to study, and when he’d gotten accepted to one of the best schools in the state, there hadn’t been a question of whether or not he was going to leave.

Jamie hadn’t wanted to stand in his way, either. She’d loved him and wanted good things for him, for him to be happy, and so the two of them had parted, both promising to do what they could to make sure that their friendship stay strong through their separation.

It should have been as simple as that, but once again life proved that it could test even the firmest of foundations. Simon’s parents went through a messy divorce during his first year away, and in an effort to avoid dealing with the negative emotions that had been stirred up, Simon essentially cut himself off from anything and everything that had to do with his home town. He didn’t call or contact anyone, and he didn’t go home for holidays.

The friendship that had existed between the Parks and Blake families seemed to be nonexistent, and Jamie had to learn how to get by without her best friend.

She managed, though, pulling herself through community college with excellent grades and getting a job at The Pit, the popular local diner. Jamie worked to support herself and took care of her mother at the same time, trying hard not to be resentful of the fact that she was now tied to the town for much longer than she had anticipated being there and that she had to do everything without the support and companionship of her best friend.

It wasn’t easy, but she did it and did it well, going on with her life and making new plans, until of course, everything changed again and Simon came home.

That had been the strangest Christmas to date in Jamie’s life. Suddenly Simon was back, and the two of them obviously still had feelings for each other, and they’d picked up right where they’d left off, even though seven years had gone by since the last time they’d even talked.

Somehow they’d worked through most of their issues, enough that when they parted again, it was as friends with new promises in place.

At least until Jamie had discovered that she was pregnant.

That had thrown them both for a loop and dragged up plenty of old things for them to fight about, but in the end, Simon had proved that he loved her and that he wanted to be with her, and they’d started their little family together.

Sure, it was hard at the moment, but Jamie tried for optimism whenever possible, and she knew Simon was trying to make it work, too.

And it was hard to regret anything that had brought her their baby, tiny and beautiful, face smoothed out now that she wasn’t crying anymore. This time they’d only made it to the bottom of the stairs before Emma had quieted down and fallen asleep against her mother’s shoulder, and Jamie sighed with relief and put her back in her crib before dragging herself back to her bed and falling down face first onto it.

She knew she would regret it, but she peeked at the clock anyway and groaned when she saw that it was already after five in the morning. Even though her mother told her she would more than understand if she had to change things up, Jamie was adamant about keeping their schedule of her going to Adelaide’s house and making her breakfast when she was around to do so. She loved having that time with her mother, and watching Emma adore her grandmother was one of her favorite things.

Jamie was conscious of the fact that she didn’t know how much longer her mother had before her cancer got worse, so she wasn’t going to let being exhausted keep her from seeing her whenever she could.

If it was five-thirteen now, that meant she could grab another couple of hours of sleep if Emma stayed quiet. Then she’d get some breakfast into the baby and get them both ready to go.

With any luck, Kathryn would be able to babysit for a few hours so Jamie could sleep before she had to make the drive to Simon’s apartment.

For once, luck was on her side, and Emma had slept clear through until the sun rose properly. Jamie smothered a yawn with her hand and went to wake her daughter, getting her up and fed and dressed so they could head out.

It was a lovely morning, and even though it was early March, there was a warmth to the air that spoke of spring. Jamie wrapped her jacket closer around her when a chill breeze ruffled her hair and strapped Emma into her car seat before driving them both over to her mother’s house.

Adelaide Parks was sitting up in her front room when Jamie came through the door, which was a welcome sight. Sometimes the woman was too ill to get out of bed before Jamie came over, so she always liked to see her up and about, even early in the morning. It reminded her of being younger and smelling her mother frying bacon when she’d wake up to go to school.

Ah, there are my girls, Adelaide said, setting her magazine aside and getting to her feet to kiss Jamie on the cheek and take Emma from her. Are you being good for your mother, little miss? she asked, kissing Emma on the cheek.

Jamie snorted. "As good as can be expected, I guess. She was only up twice last night. Well.